It is always better to enter a conflict calmly, firmly, and respectfully, rather than with guns blazing. Then you can escalate as required. Gerrit is still working on this. It was effective with MO the faulty pool robot though; the manufacturer was apologetic and offered a complete repair service paid for by them including shipping. The repair will supposedly be done within three days of them receiving it, with the whole effort complete in a week or two.
It's interesting to see how different languages handle different concepts. For example, in Portuguese there are at least three words for "there": close to the listener, far away but in sight, and far away and out of sight. "This" and "that" are similar: the proper word depends on how close the objects are. They have different expressions for something being above something else if the two things touch or are separated, and similarly for being below something touching or separated. On the other hand, there is one word for the all the possessives "his", "her", "hers", "their", "your", and "yours". This word varies, however, depending on the thing which is possessed: masculine, feminine, singular, or plural. At least this is what we think we've figured out so far. How do they keep it all straight?
Handyman
We celebrated Gerrit's birthday with an overnight trip to the city of
Pat booked us a room and restaurant reservations at a beautiful 4-star hotel next to the Bom Jesus cathedral, which is on a hill just outside Braga itself. Bom Jesus is a grand Catholic cathedral with a magnificent double zig-zag stairway leading up the hillside to it. (Fortunately there is a road and also a funicular railway you can ride up, but unfortunately the funicular was closed when we were there.) It is the major attraction in Braga, drawing in tourists from all over the world, all year round, and it was our first destination when we arrived.
We started at the base of the stairway. There was a large crowd of high school kids there, all holding big pink rectangles of paper, sometimes over their heads. Wha? Some obscure Portuguese custom? When we went up the steps a little and looked back down we could see that they were standing in the formation of the pink ribbon symbol for breast cancer awareness! They were all set up for an overhead drone photo. October being breast cancer awareness month, it all made sense now.
 Looking up the stairs
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 The human pink ribbon
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This was the high-school crowd, all excited at the foot of the stairs. We didn't stick around to find out, but we suspect they ran up the stairs after their photo-op:
We took the hairpin road (not the bazillion stairs) up to the church itself and looked around the whole area. There was a cathedral, gardens, and vistas, quite a sight, and even a lovely-looking little grotto. Well, as long as you don't look too closely. The grotto is fake, sculpted out of concrete, but it looks nice in a Disneyland sort of way. Then we checked into our hotel, an elegant if slightly faded establishment with walnut doors, brass hardware, and hushed hallways.
 At the top of the stairs
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 Looking back down the stairs
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Garden and chapel
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 Sweet hand painted tile sign for the gift shop
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The "grotto"
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 A cave-dweller emerges
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Inside the cathedral itself, complete with Roman oppressors in 3-D above the altar
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 The idled funicular
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While driving around we had seen a glimpse of an impressive cathedral a little further up the hill, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Sameiro. Up we went to wander and admire another gorgeous Braga cathedral.
 From the road
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 Up close
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With a little time left in the afternoon we drove to the Arco da Porta Nova, originally one of the gates into the walled city of Braga in 1512. It was revised to its current form in 1772. There is a popular tease in
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Hey, you from Braga?
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 Just up the street a bit
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Dinner
Sunset that evening was at 6:30, and there was a beautiful view of it from the terrace outside our hotel. We retired to our room for a rest and to change into our fancy dinner clothes, then took our places on the terrace. The sunset was extra-specially nice since today was the end of the summer burn ban. So with pent-up demand there had been brush fires all afternoon, filling the air with particulates and contributing to the fiery red sunset.
The restaurant was like the hotel: elegant in a 1950s way. Pat had scallops, one of her favorites, and Gerrit had Duck Magret with a
 Beautiful wrought iron and some smoke
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A few minutes later
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 Lame food photo 1
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 Lame food photo 2
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The next morning we had a nice breakfast and checked out, heading to the Cathedral of Santa Maria of Braga. Braga is known as "The City of Cathedrals", at least to Gerrit. This one was founded in the year 1089 and has undergone Romanesque and Baroque renovations over the centuries. We spent our time in the cathedral itself, which was spectacular. The magnificent pipe organ and painted wooden ceilings were breathtaking. It is marvelous that such grandeur has been so well preserved for over 900 years.
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Three smiling faces outside the cathedral
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 And inside the cathedral
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 The incredible pipe organ |
 A glimpse of the painted wood ceiling |
And our final sightseeing destination was the Palace of the Mexican, within walking distance of the Cathedral of Santa Maria. It was built in 1754 as the residence of the family of João Duarte Faria, and has served as a hospital and art gallery over the years. The exterior is covered with individually hand-painted tiles, really stunning. We came across a strange art exhibit inside, consisting of pictures of broken and damaged food and utensils. The artist's statement at the end revealed that she is Ukrainian and has been agonizing over trying to feed her children in the chaos of war. Our thoughts went from confusion to heartbreak.
 Beautiful tiled exterior
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 Tile detail |
 More tile along the marble stairway |
We had a little lunch at a street café, picked up some cabinets we'd ordered from the big
(As usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, scroll through them all, and click outside a photo when you're done. Also, you can click on the bold underlined phrases to play the audio.)